Over the past few years, we’ve heard a lot of bad news regarding the housing market. Bad news, however, breeds opportunity. Anyone able to get a home loan or refinance their existing loan would have been able to lock in rates at record levels (in some cases less than 3% for a 30-year mortgage). Those fortunate enough to have kept their job and to have also refinanced a loan have benefited from an increase in cash flow…in some cases saving a substantial amount of money. For example, lets look at a $220k loan initiated in 2004. At the time rates were around 6.5%. This year, one could have refinanced to a rate of 3.5%. Given some of the principal would have been payed down in those 9 years, one could have saved almost $500 per month. In some industries this is like the equivalent to a substantial pay raise. So look at the bright side, even though all this news seems to be negative.